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My brothers and sisters, there was a very famous anthropologist and American anthropologist
archaeologist called Margaret Mead. So, somebody asked her once, they said, when was the beginning
of civilization? And she said a wonderful thing. She said, they found a, in one of the archaeological
digs, she said they found a skeleton of a person whose femur had broken and joined and healed.
So, the femur is the big bone of the leg. She said that is the beginning of civilization. So,
they said what has the joining of a femur got to do with the beginning of civilization? So,
they said, what has the joining of a femur got to do with the beginning of civilization? So,
she said that in the wild, if an animal breaks a femur, that is a death sentence. Because once
the big bone of the leg is broken, the animal can’t run. And if the animal can’t run,
that animal is dead. It can’t find food, and so either it’ll die of starvation,
or something will get it. The healing and joining of the femur means that somebody
took the leg and went back to the front yard, and it will come back to its former state. So,
it’s a death sentence. So, the two animals, they were actually in the wild, but they were in a
care of that animal and they fed it and they took care of it until it was able to walk again.
So in this case it was a human being who obviously suffered some kind of accident and
broke his or her femur but there was somebody there who took the time and trouble to take care
of them and made sure that you know they were and the femur doesn’t join fast it’s a big bone so it
takes time so they took care of them fed them whatnot until their leg was healed and she said
this is the beginning of civilization. So my understanding from this and I submit to you is that
civilization is not like what we seem to believe today which they all the fancy sexy technology
we have it you have this AI which can do this and this robot which can do that
effectively the robot is doing what another human being can do with his eyes shut
in a less efficient manner and we are very impressed that this robot did all this
just because it’s a machine and so forth so I won’t go into discussing that but my point is
that that’s not civilization. Civilization is how we treat each other how we talk to each other
how we take care of each other in times of need how we go out of our way to provide for each other
in my research for my book the business of family business I spoke to and I
have read about many entrepreneurs startup stories and one of the startup stories
this man says that she’s been with our company for you know god knows from the beginning inception
almost number 30th or something else so as to what keeps you there
and he’s not even the highest paid or anything like that he said what keeps you there is the fact
that one day I was away on a sales trip and my child fell seriously ill
and he says that my
boss, who is the founder of the company,
without being asked,
he came
home,
took my wife and my son
to the hospital, and then
when the child
was whatever they had to do, they did it.
And the child had been
admitted into the hospital
and was going to be there overnight
and happened to stay there
for a day or two.
He says, my
boss, the founder of the business,
he said
to my wife,
you go home and
take care of whatever you need to do at home
and I’ll stay here.
And he stayed
awake with the child
the whole night,
looking after my child.
And I was away, selling whatever
product I was selling for that
company. He said, now,
that is debt.
As far as I’m concerned, that is debt.
And nothing will take me
away from that organization.
So my
submission to you when I ask myself
the same question is,
what are the legacies that we are creating?
Now, the thing is to understand this, that
this doesn’t happen overnight.
That man,
whoever it was, didn’t do
it because he suddenly
had a brainwave on that day.
He didn’t do it to get brownie points.
He didn’t do it to say,
you know, I’m not going to do this.
I’m going to let my salesman
work wherever he’s working. I don’t want to
disturb the sales. I can make some money.
Let me go and spend them on like, no.
This is the result
of the way he was raised.
The way he was
brought up. Think about this.
Today, when you look at
the
so-called global leaders we have,
and I guess that is
one of the convenient things because
the way we are today, we can
literally look at any of them.
Randomly. And you come to the same conclusion.
So if you look at them,
each one is more evil than the other.
Each one is causing more destruction,
more harm, more misery,
more heartache to innocent people than the other.
But think about that.
That that same person today,
there was a time when he was a toddler.
There was a time when he was younger than that.
There was a time when he was in a nursery
with his siblings.
There was a time when he was nursing
from his mother or some similar,
you know, equal thing.
There was a time when this person was
growing up.
He was four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
This time when this person was a teenager and so on.
And whatever happened
or failed to happen
during that period,
it shaped for you
the person who’s standing today in front of you
as the head of a nation
and doing what he or she is doing.
Also think about that,
that many of these nations,
if not almost all of them,
are so-called democracies,
which means that these leaders
have actually been
elected to those
positions.
And if you see,
if you follow the election campaigns
of many of them,
one of these things that stand out is
that the complete open brazenness
with which these people have been
demonstrating and speaking and announcing and
you know, declaring their absolutely
and speaking and announcing and declaring their absolutely
pathetic.
I hate to hesitate to use
the word values, but I don’t know what
it’s used. So, pathetic values.
They’re completely
anti-human values. Yet
they get elected. So, what
does that tell us about
ourselves?
People like you and me, you might say, well, you know, I’m not like
that. Well, maybe.
But then everybody
says that about themselves, don’t they?
There are enough
people who are
in sync
with leaders of this kind
for such leaders to get elected.
So, what does that tell
us about ourselves as a society
of humanity?
In Urdu, we say,
Insaniyat. So, Insaniyat
is not human. Human is human, but not humanity.
So, without humanity,
there are humans and animals.
And I would like
to apologize to the animals
that I insulted them.
Because our
humans are such
that even the animals
are ashamed of seeing the
devil. So, we have
humans, we are human beings, we are
forget animals, even
the devil will be ashamed
to be associated with them.
My brothers and sisters, please,
I
sincerely request
you, if you have
children, if you want children,
if you have taken the trouble,
if you have given your children,
please understand, this is a sacred responsibility.
It is because of this
responsibility that Allah
gave you the position
that He gave you.
This is not just
a biological thing.
You know, produce a child and therefore now
the Jannah is under the feet
of the mother and
the father is the door of Jannah.
It’s not a biological thing.
Jannah is not under the feet
of a mother who
does not know,
who has not
taught the child anything
about Islam.
Jannah is not under the feet of the mother who
has not introduced the child to Allah
and to His Rasool
. The door of
Jannah is not the father
who is indulging, who is earning, who is eating,
who is drinking, haram and behaving
in a way which is haram.
No, there is no Jannah there.
So, please, if you
want
and purely as a matter of self-interest
I will tell you that if you raise
the kind of children that I see
around me today,
then be prepared for a day
when that child
without any compunctions
will take you
and put you into an old people’s home
and that’s if you are lucky.
Otherwise, he will give you one room
in your house and treat you
like a servant.
Don’t be surprised when the child is not there.
When that day comes, because that day will come
and you will be responsible
for that day.
That day happens to you
because you made it happen to you.
The time to change is now.
No matter what the age,
no matter what.
If you have given up your children to
gadgets to raise them
and if the mother of the
child is a cell phone
and the father of the child doesn’t exist,
the children are yetim with the parents
being in their own homes.
How?
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So,
please,
wake up
and
raise children
the way you should raise them.
Now,
there are many
of you
and I’m,
you know,
really,
it’s quite amazing,
but that is the fact
that
even the sincere ones,
they might say,
look,
it sounds good,
but I don’t know what to do.
So,
raise children well
and I’m going to do it.
I don’t know how to raise them well.
Very good.
Please learn.
Those of you who are,
have access to me,
come to me.
Those of you who have access to
other people who know
about this,
please go to them.
But make sure you learn
how to raise children.
Everything has to be learned,
but you don’t get it from birth.
So it is something to learn.
And this is something which is
more critical than
practically anything else.
So please don’t leave
your children
to their phones and devices.
Your job does not end
with feeding, clothing
and giving shelter
to the child.
Feeding and giving shelter
and making sure that the
the creature is
is healthy and
has a dry place to sleep
is how you treat a pet.
It is how you treat a pet.
It is how you treat a pet.
It is how you raise a dog or a cat,
not how you raise a child.
You have to train your children.
You have to have
tarbih of the children.
So please,
as I said,
it’s a matter for yourself.
It’s a question of you
and yourselves.
So I would say respect yourself.
Respect the fact that
Allah gave you children
and
make sure that
your children become
a blessing for you.
You know, I say this all the time.
People use this term very easily.
It’s I have not been blessed with a child.
I also have been blessed with a child.
Think about this.
Allah in the Quran
did not call
anywhere in the Quran.
Allah has not said that children are a blessing.
Allah said children are a fitrah.
Innamal amwalukum wa awladukum
Innamal amwalukum wa azwajukum
Allah said these are
fitrah. They are tests.
They are tests.
It is a test.
Whether this test becomes a blessing
or a curse depends on you.
So if you take this test
and say Alhamdulillah Allah has given me this
and I’m going to raise these children
who will be beautiful
people of great akhlaq,
people who are close to Allah and the Rasul
people who are a means of goodness and khair and barakah
for whoever comes into contact with them,
then that is your choice.
And then InshaAllah they will be a blessing.
They will become sadaqah.
They will become sajjariya for you.
They will become forathurra’in for you.
But it is not something that happens automatically.
It does not happen because you have children.
As I told you,
look at the world leaders today.
There was a day when they were children.
Are they blessings?
Do you see them as blessings?
Or do you see them as
a curse
sent as a punishment
to people who
didn’t bother to raise them
and they were very sure of their self?
So I submit to you,
let us not be among them.
Let’s not be among those
who will then have to lament
the kind of children
that we raise.
Instead let’s be among them who
will thank Allah
for having given us children
and then having given us the sense
and the tawfiq
and helped us to make the effort.
It’s not just a matter of tawfiq.
The tawfiq is from day one.
When Allah revealed the Quran,
that is tawfiq.
When Allah sent the Prophet
that is tawfiq.
Many people say this.
Have you done Hajj? No.
Why?
When the call comes,
I will go.
I say that the call comes only once
and that is the call of the Angel of Death.
Apart from that, you have to do Hajj yourself.
Right?
You will only be called once
and that’s when you have to die.
There is no
When Hajj was made fard, this is tawfiq.
When the Rasul came and he taught them
That’s tawfiq.
What more tawfiq do you want?
Jibreel is not going to come to you
and say, time to go, let’s go.
So please, tawfiq already Allah has given.
And nobody can say, I do not have tawfiq.
You have tawfiq. Allah has given you tawfiq.
Act on it.
That this life that Allah has given,
which we don’t know when it will end,
except that it will end,
it can end very suddenly
and it can end very soon.
Let us make sure that this life
becomes the greatest asset and wealth
that we could possibly have.
Because this is the only time
that you and I are going to have
where we can make an impact
on our eternal life.
The one that never ends.
And whether that impact
will be negative or positive,
is in our hands.
Nobody can force it.
Allah has given it to you.
Write your script
for Jannah and Jahannam.
Write your script for Jannah and Jahannam.
This dunya,
Allah made things,
Allah controlled things.
But in the Akhirah,
Allah gave it to us.
Write whatever you like.
So what is it that you and I want to write?
Ask Allah SWT to help us to do that.
We please Him and save us from that.
And help us to create
generations
which will be a credit to us.
Not generations
where people will look at them and say
may Allah curse
the parents of these people.
Why did they ever give birth to such children?
Why did they ever raise such children?
We don’t want to be those people.
May Allah bless you all.
May Allah bless you all.
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